


Pushing the Envelope

by Lokei



Category: Fantastic Four (Movieverse)
Genre: Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-29
Updated: 2008-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-19 02:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokei/pseuds/Lokei





	Pushing the Envelope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [romanticalgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/gifts).



“Actually, Susie, Johnny’s got it right,” Ben’s somewhat less than dulcet tones percolated through Reed’s closed door—despite the soundproofing. “The acceleration would do exactly that.”

Reed didn’t hear Sue’s response—so the soundproofing wasn’t worthless, after all—but it mustn’t have been complimentary, because approximately 12.35 seconds later, the door slammed open and shut again, admitting a snarling, simmering Human Torch.

Reed did not look up. He could smell the scorching from his desk, thank you very much.

“I swear, all she remembers is that I washed out of NASA, not that I was ever in,” Johnny growled, throwing himself at a stool near the lab bench and setting it to rocking on two feet.

“Kicked out,” Reed said obscurely, his eyes still on his monitors.

“Huh?”

“You were kicked out of NASA,” Reed elaborated, looking up at last. “’Washed out’ implies that you didn’t have the ability to meet expectations, when that is clearly not the case. You simply found the requirements boring and decided not to bother sticking to them.”

Johnny blinked at Reed for a second, and then grinned. “I think I like your version.”

Reed rolled his eyes. “I think I’d prefer the version where you led with the brain that’s above your waist and stayed in NASA, not pushed the envelope so far. You would have been a good pilot for them.”

Johnny shrugged. “Well, now I’m a good pilot for us. Whenever you actually, you know, let me fly our super cool car.”

The corner of Reed’s mouth twitched upward as he turned calmly back to his computer, trying to put a repressive tone in his voice. “They’re going to instate speed limits for air travel in New York and it will all be your fault.”

Johnny chuckled and abandoned the stool for one of the rolling chairs closer to Reed. “Just another accomplishment to add to my resume.”

Reed’s mouth twitched again and Johnny rolled a little closer. “I’m going to regret asking this, I know, but I’ll do anything to avoid having to go out and deal with my sister for a while. What are you working on?”

Johnny grinned in triumph as Reed bit his lip to keep from laughing at his petulant routine. When Sue got on a tear, everyone got out of her way in a remarkable display of male solidarity. Unfortunately for Ben, he had agreed to help her with her latest project and was unable to escape. Taking a look at the real annoyance behind Johnny’s hammed-up expression, however, Reed stretched out an arm and locked the lab door.

“Better?” Reed’s eyebrows rose in question. Johnny nodded and wiped his brow in over exaggerated relief.

“I’m working on something you might be able to help me with, actually,” Reed scooted his chair over a bit so that Johnny could see as well. Johnny took this for permission and rolled right over and bumped Reed’s, just because he could. Reed shot him a look, but Johnny was looking innocently at the screen.

“How is it I’m supposed to be helping with this?” Johnny squinted at the diagram and tilted his head a little. “It looks like a satellite schematic.”

“It is. I’m trying to figure out what will be the lightest heat shielding I can put on it to make it easy to carry up in the shuttle, but durable enough to survive re-entry if necessary.”

Johnny poked at the screen. “These bits here—this is a communications array?” There was a bit of silence and he looked over at Reed curiously.

Reed was looking at him, arms crossed and a distinct look of pride mixed with something Johnny wasn’t sure he could identify on his face.

“Reed?”

The scientist shook himself and leaned back towards the computer. “Communications array, yes. I got permission from NASA to put this satellite on the next mission and they’ll deploy it for us. I’m not happy with the way current communications satellites overload during an emergency situation, and I’ve designed this one for us so that we can always be reached and reach each other even if other communications go down. I still have to figure out how to heat-proof a communications device for you to carry or wear…that melted earbud last month can’t have been comfortable.”

Johnny let Reed ramble on, watching him get lost in the science, as enthusiastic and open as the pilot ever saw him. With Ben, Reed was diffident, as if he was aware of the way Ben admired his brain, and consequently downplayed his accomplishments because the older man’s simple trust could be embarrassing in its totality. With Sue, Reed was often on the defensive, always justifying his choices as if he had to prove it was worth spending time on them instead of dancing attendance on her and her projects.

This Reed had apparently decided that he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, and was letting himself enjoy Johnny’s unusual, but apparently willing audience. It was a good look on Reed, Johnny decided, which made him wonder again about the look Reed had given him ten minutes before.

Johnny waited until Reed was talking through an equation to ask him about it. It was amazing what you could learn—not to mention what you could get away with— if you asked Richards things in a moment of abstraction.

“Why were you looking at me like that when you asked for my help?”

Reed barely glanced at him, one arm stretched out to write something on the omnipresent blackboard and the other typing furiously. “Hmm?”

“When I identified your schematic. You were looking at me funny. What were you thinking?”

“Intelligent and engaged is a good look on you,” Reed answered absently, retracting his arm and using both hands to alter his computer model.

Stunned by how closely the other man’s thoughts seemingly ran parallel to his own, Johnny gaped at him, mouth opening and closing a few times without anything coming out.

When something did, it was embarrassingly close to a squeak that Johnny would have disowned if at all possible. “Really?”

It was mortifying to have his highly polished professional cool desert him at a time like this.

Though it was a comfort to see that Reed wasn’t doing any better.

The scientist looked up from his equation, frowning, and visibly ran through the last exchange in his head. His eyes widened, his face got very red, and he abruptly pushed himself in his chair across to the other side of his large curved workspace.

“Would you mind dragging that equation into the simulator and running it, please?” Reed’s voice was relatively normal but he wouldn’t meet Johnny’s eyes, instead staring desperately at a second screen where some other numbers were scrolling rapidly.

To his growing dismay, Johnny realized flustered was also a good look on the geek, and more familiar, at that. Feeling on more solid ground, Johnny obligingly ran the simulator while tallying up certain points of this conversation. Reed thought he was intelligent. Reed had noticed he was genuinely annoyed. Reed was giving him an opportunity to be useful and had actually made an attempt at teasing him. Reed thought he looked good, and was now trying very hard to not admit that he’d admitted it. Chances were very good that that look Johnny hadn’t recognized, he hadn’t recognized because he never expected to see attraction on Reed Richards’ face.

Huh.

Well, when dealing with a scientist, it was always important to follow the scientific method. Given the available data, Johnny might just have a working hypothesis. He believed the next step was to conduct an experiment.

He pushed off from the desk and rolled to a stop at Reed’s elbow. Reed abruptly rolled over to their original spot, and started very obviously taking notes of the simulator results. Johnny followed him, enjoying the whirring noise of the wheels under him.

“Those results get automatically saved in the system, you know,” he observed as Reed glared at him. Johnny raised his eyebrows and looked at the other expectantly.

Reed started to push off again and Johnny reached out quickly and snagged his wrist. Reed stretched for a long moment but didn’t make it more than a half-dozen feet away, one arm still firmly in Johnny’s grip. He’d gone pale and his eyes were shuttered over a thinned mouth.

“Let go,” Reed said stiffly. “I need to—“

“Come back here,” Johnny cut him off, tugging gently at Reed’s wrist and watching in fascination as Reed’s captive forearm shrank back down, ending in its normal length under his hands, with Reed’s knees bumping his own as their chairs collided softly.

“Johnny?” It was Reed’s turn to have a voice an octave higher than normal as Johnny leaned in. He was relatively impressed by the fact that Reed didn’t try to back away again, though. Johnny had limited patience for chasing unless it was a sure thing. Pushing, though, Johnny was good at pushing.

He wrapped a hand around Reed’s neck and pulled him the last few inches. “You know, Reed, you really should have remembered I have a bad track record with simulators,” he said with a smirk just before their lips connected.

When he finally released a rather dazed and rumpled looking Reed, Johnny still wasn’t sure what the hell his conclusion ought to be. Some experiment. Rang his bells but he had no idea what that look on Reed’s face really meant.

“So,” he said, striving for casualness, “you going to kick me out now, dude?”

Reed licked his lips, scratched his head, and looked at Johnny with yet a third unreadable expression. “Are you going to keep pushing the envelope?”

Johnny took a gamble. “It’s what I do best,” he pulled on his familiar smirk.

Suddenly Reed’s eyes were full of that first expression, and Johnny thought he could get to like it.

“Then I think I’d better keep you around,” Reed said, and reached out to lock the other door.


End file.
